Analysis, part 3 - "Hero Collars"

Likewise, just as the men's VOY undershirts tended to have "hero collars" (but not always), so did the DS9/NEM division shirts. 

For those of you who have not read our men's VOY undershirt tutorial, by "hero collar" we mean a two-piece collar (collar + collar facing) with the seam allowances causing a slight bulge at the top of the collar, and by "standard collar" we mean a collar that was a single piece of fabric folded in half. 

The terms "hero collar" and "standard collar" may be somewhat inaccurate; the term "hero" seems to imply that that technique was used on the main cast's costumes while the "standard" was used for everybody else (supporting and recurring cast, extras, etc.), but the actual evidence of "hero collar" construction amongst the main characters of the various productions is curiously contradictory. 

"Hero collars" were common practice for the main characters on Deep Space Nine (and on Voyager, for that matter), but except for Data (and sometimes Worf, who was possibly wearing one of his Deep Space Nine division shirts), the TNG crew always appeared to have standard collars - even in Nemesis, which, as we stated previously, was arguably the finalized, ideal versions of all of the DS9/NEM-era Starfleet uniforms. 

But we think "hero collar" sounds better than "almost and/or probably hero collar" or "hero collar for Deep Space Nine and Voyager but not the TNG movies," and we like the "hero collar" construction better, so for want of a better term, that's what we call it.

As mentioned above, a "hero collar" is identified by the slight bulge at the top of the collar, caused by the collar/collar facing seam allowance being "sandwiched" between the layers.

"Standard collar"

"Hero collar"

As you can see, the Deep Space Nine crew all had "hero collars" (at least, the vast majority of the time):

DS9, 5x25 "In the Cards"

DS9, 6x21 "The Reckoning"

DS9, 7x14 "Chimera"

The Voyager crew also had "hero collars" on their uniform undershirts:

Again, the TNG crew, for some reason, never seemed to have "hero collars" in any of their movies (with the exception of Data and occasionally Worf, who may have been wearing one of his division shirts from Deep Space 9).

Nemesis

We really don't know why Data would have a hero collar when nobody else did ...

Nemesis

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